Music, Humor Temper Memorial for Hewlett

Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, January 21, 2001

William Hewlett, one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley, was remembered yesterday in a way he himself would have enjoyed spending an afternoon: with opera music, friends and family, and humorous anecdotes.

From a rollerblader wearing a Hewlett-Packard T-shirt to members of his first wife's sewing club, to people who never actually met the man, hundreds of people filled the Stanford Memorial Church for a 1 1/2-hour service to honor the co-founder of one of the world's most successful technology companies.

William Redington Hewlett, who along with David Packard began Hewlett- Packard Co. in a Palo Alto garage in 1939, died Jan. 12 in his sleep at the age of 87. A private funeral was held earlier in the week.

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"He could be gruff, gentle, outgoing or shy, but he was always full of life, " said family friend Maggie Lacey Schneider, who delivered one of five tributes yesterday.

Music was an important part of his father's life, said Walter B. Hewlett, one of five children from Hewlett's first marriage to Flora Lamson, who died in 1977.

"I can remember sitting on my father's lap listening to Handel's 'Messiah,' " Walter Hewlett said. "He taught us how to sing in four-part harmony. Music became a code with which we could communicate with our father."

Two sopranos, a tenor and a baritone followed Hewlett's remarks with a rendition of Mozart's motet, 'Ave, verum corpus."

The San Francisco Opera, one of the many beneficiaries of Hewlett's philanthropy, provided some of his favorite music by Mozart and Bach, and churchgoers closed the service with one of Hewlett's cherished hymns, "Our God,

Our Help in Ages Past."

Also in attendance was Hewlett's widow, Rosemary Bradford, who brought five children of her own to their 22-year marriage.

Schneider remembered the couple's fateful meeting, at a Big Game party. Hewlett, who was in need of a garage, was quite interested to hear about Bradford's home, she said.

"To this day, Rosie claims that Bill married her for her garage," Schneider said.

Despite starting a company that grew into a $49 billion maker of computers, servers and printers, Hewlett rarely used the Internet, Schneider said. "They enjoyed looking it up in their library," she said.

Indeed, Hewlett possessed a formidable intellect.

Former Stanford dean and friend Arjay Miller discovered this during an argument over how tall a shrub needs to be before it's considered a tree. Miller backed up his contention using one source. Hewlett countered with numerous explanations gleaned from his 150-volume horticultural library.

Hewlett's intellectual sparring was not reserved for adults.

David W. Packard, son of HP co-founder David Packard who died in 1996 at age 83, remembered spending a lot of time with "Uncle Bill" and the Hewletts.

"Visiting the Hewletts was like being on a quiz show," he said. "We always left smarter -- or more aware of our ignorance."

Throughout his career, Hewlett's influence reached much further than the Packard family.

He had many causes, from the environment to education, and he had the money to give: Forbes magazine last year ranked him the 26th wealthiest American, with a net worth of $9 billion. Together, he and Packard became one of Stanford University's most significant benefactors, over time donating more than $300 million.

Still, per Hewlett's wishes, not one building on the campus is named after him.

Friends and family said they will remember Hewlett for his sense of humor, modesty, interest in people as individuals, love of the outdoors and an insatiable curiosity.

Derrick Kikuchi, who worked for 16 years at one of HP's first campuses in Stanford Park, counts himself lucky to have been with the company when Hewlett and Packard still "managed by wandering around."

"He measured the health of the company by asking one question: 'Are you having fun?' " Kikuchi said of Hewlett.

Kikuchi credits what he learned from Hewlett -- boldness, experience and caring about people -- with the success of his own company, WK Multimedia Network, which now lists HP as a client.

Pat Barrett, a patent attorney for 33 years with HP and then its spin-off, Agilent Technologies, recalls the days when Hewlett would join employees in the cafeteria for lunch.

"He had an uncanny knack of being able to sit down with an engineer and ask three questions -- and with those three questions find the weaknesses of the project at hand," he said with a smile.

Software engineer Fred Krumbein met Hewlett only once, at a cafe. But he attended the service to honor the end of the first generation of Silicon Valley pioneers.

When he heard the news of Hewlett's death, Krumbein took his kids to see the famed garage where it all started, now a state historical landmark.

"They set the standard for other companies," Krumbein said of Hewlett- Packard and its "HP Way."